New Democratic House committee chairs are set to launch subpoena-powered investigations into the president’s finances, Russian interference, and administration ethics scandals. After two years of low-energy Republican oversight, the Trump administration’s policies and its basic competence in running the government will be under serious scrutiny for the first time.

Republicans have been supremely worried about this prospect for some time. “Winter is coming,” one Trump ally told the Washington Post before the election. If the Democrats won the House, the source continued, “The White House will be under siege.”

The siege is about to begin. The big game changer is that the majorities in congressional committees have the ability to approve subpoenas: to compel document production or in-person testimony, from government agencies and officials as well as private citizens.

The committees themselves can’t bring criminal charges as a result of the investigations, but they can refer the conduct they find to the Justice Department. Just as consequentially, scandals they unearth could have political consequences in the media and at the ballot box.

Each committee will be led by a chair, and each chair will have some leeway to decide where to expend their committee’s investigative resources. These are the key players who will do much to shape President Trump’s 2019. So here’s what we know about some of the most important incoming chairs, and their investigative ambitions.

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

House Democrats are taking aim at President Trump’s tax returns with their first major bill package of their new majority.

The provision, announced Friday morning, would require presidents, vice presidents and candidates for those offices to release the last 10 years of their taxes. The President is the first in more than four decades to refuse to divulge his personal finances.

The provision is part of a larger package of ethics, campaign security and voting rights legislation. And like much of the rest of the bill, it’s mostly being pushed for optics and messaging reasons, as it’s almost certain that the provision won’t become law.

That doesn’t mean the fight over Trump’s taxes is going away anytime soon, however. The move is just the latest Democratic attempt to pressure Trump to release his tax returns.

It's an ethics bill so expect Republicans to block it.

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

Well, it’s one way to make a name for yourself after entering Congress. Hours after Rep. Rashida Tlaib made headlines for being sworn in as one of the two first Muslim female members of Congress on Thursday (alongside Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar), she told a cheering crowd about her mission against Donald Trump: “Impeach the motherfucker.” Speaking at a reception for the MoveOn campaign on Thursday night, the Michigan Democrat recalled a conversation she had with her son. She quoted her boy saying: “‘Look, Mama, you won. Bullies don’t win,’” Tlaib told the crowd. “And I said, ‘Baby, they don’t.’ Because we’re gonna go in there and impeach the motherfucker.”

Tlaib expanded on her comments in an op-ed for the Detroit Free Press, writing that “We already have overwhelming evidence that the president has committed impeachable offenses, including, just to name a few: obstructing justice; violating the emoluments clause; abusing the pardon power; directing or seeking to direct law enforcement to prosecute political adversaries for improper purposes...” And after conservatives criticized the congresswoman for her “impeach the motherfucker” comment, she doubled down: On Friday, Tlaib tweeted, “I will always speak truth to power. #unapologeticallyme.” Tlaib is the first Palestinian-American woman to be elected to Congress and, alongside Omar, became the first female rep to wear a headscarf, also known as a hijab, in Congress.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reiterated on Friday that she views impeachment as a “divisive” issue, but partly defended newly elected Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) Thursday evening remark that “We’re gonna go in there and impeach the motherfucker.”

Speaking with MSNBC host Joy Reid, Pelosi was adamant that she is not in the business of policing the language of her colleagues. Furthermore, she noted, the president himself has used far worse language.

“I probably have a generational reaction to [Tlaib’s comment],” Pelosi said in the MSNBC interview set to air Friday night. “I’m not in the censorship business,” she said. “I don’t like that language, I wouldn’t use that language, but I wouldn’t establish language standards for my colleagues.”

Tlaib’s comments, the speaker added, were “nothing worse than the president has said.”

All the talk of indictments and impeachments appears to be getting inside somebody’s head. In a bizarre statement, even for Donald Trump’s Twitter feed, the president on Friday morning wrote: “How do you impeach a president who has won perhaps the greatest election of all time, done nothing wrong (no Collusion with Russia, it was the Dems that Colluded), had the most successful first two years of any president, and is the most popular Republican in party history 93%?” It’s unclear why being in the “greatest election of all time” would make him immune to impeachment, or by what measure he rates the last two years “the most successful first two years of any president.” The 93 percent rating is incorrect. A recent survey put his approval among Republicans overall at 85 percent. Among those who identified as strongly Republican that was 93 percent, but those voters make up less than half of the Republican electorate and just 18 percent of likely U.S. voters. Trump’s overall approval rating among not-so-strong Republicans was just 72 percent. And as for collusion with Russia—well, that's for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to decide.

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy on Friday angrily complained about the lack of civility by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who said on Thursday that House Democrats were going to “impeach” President Donald Trump — whom she referred to as a “motherf*cker.”

While holding court with reporters, McCarthy said that Republicans would never condone the use of such foul language.

“Do you know what happened in the last Congress when Republicans were in the majority?” he asked. “You know what our freshman class did? They put a resolution together to actually work with one another, to not use foul language. They got almost every single freshman to sign onto it! That is the difference with this new Congress and it’s wrong.”

A reporter, however, noted that Republicans have typically brushed off the need for civility when it comes to President Donald Trump.

“The president, not too long ago, referred to a woman as ‘horse face,'” he pointed out. “Who within your caucus called out the president for that type of language?”

“I think a lot of them did,” McCarthy said, without naming a single GOP lawmaker who actually did so.

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

"Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers arc in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”

— Carl Sagan
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
1995

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

— H.L. Mencken
On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

The Daily 202: The new Russia revelations are more consequential than Trump’s newsless immigration speech

-- The more consequential story coming out of Tuesday was the result of a flub by Paul Manafort’s defense team. It accidentally revealed, because of botched redactions, that the former Trump campaign chairman allegedly shared 2016 presidential campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, an associate the FBI has said has ties to Russian intelligence. Manafort’s attorneys were responding to allegations by special counsel Bob Mueller that the former Trump campaign chairman lied repeatedly to prosecutors after agreeing to cooperate.

“Remember, the polling info Manafort passed to Kilimnik was headed to Deripaska, who is close to Putin,” said Steven Hall, the former chief of Russia operations at the CIA.

“The margins the Russians needed to change in key states during the 2016 elections [were] pretty small. Now we know how they were able to be so precise: Paul Manafort was providing polling data to Russia.”

“Manafort, who knows Deripaska very well and isn't a total idiot, thought internal campaign data was worth real money to the oligarch (i.e., to count against Manafort's debt). That only makes sense if Deripaska was passing on to others -- and that Manafort KNEW he was,”said David Burbach, who teaches national security and international relations at the Naval War College. “Deripaska himself would have more use for Arby's BBQ sauce recipe.”

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Rev Martin Luther King Jr.

Obamacare took my guns away and put me in a FEMA reeducation camp.

Anonymous

If you've got public schools paid for by taxpayers, you're in a socialist nation. If you have public roads paid for by taxpayers, socialist nation. If you've got public defense (police, fire, military, coast guard) paid for by tax dollars, socialist nation. If you're in a nation that has nationalized or localized delivery of services that are not paid for by users alone, you're in a socialist nation- the only question is how socialist. As I see it, we have the military pay to protecting the shipping lanes for our fuel needs which makes up very socialist. In a capitalist nation, the people supplying the oil would pay for their own defense force.

Nyah nyah. This is indeed serious. Looking like the smoking gun. Surprised that Bloomberg hasnt picked up on this.

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."-- Winston Churchill"Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices" Voltaire

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) requested that FBI Director Christopher Wray open an investigation into whether Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen committed perjury, after she claimed the administration “never had a policy for family separation.” According to an administration memo released by Merkley’s office Thursday, Trump administration officials worked to create a policy to “separate family units” as early as Dec. 2017. Nielsen, in her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, stated that the administration had no policy for family separation. “In light of these conflicting facts, the FBI should immediately investigate whether Secretary Nielsen’s statements violate.... relevant federal statutes that prohibit perjury and false statements to Congress,” Merkley wrote in a statement.

LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP!

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee in March over the Trump administration’s controversial decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, the committee announced Tuesday.

Ross will be called to “provide complete and truthful answers to a wide range of questions, including questions regarding the ongoing preparations for the census, the addition of a citizenship question, and other topics” at the March 14 hearing, the committee announced Tuesday.

This announcement comes a week after a federal judge blocked the addition of the citizenship question, issuing a scathing 277-page ruling accusing Ross of violating the Administrative Procedure Act.

Critiquing Ross’ motivation for adding the question, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman said that the Commerce Secretary “failed to consider several important aspects of the problem; alternately ignored, cherry-picked, or badly misconstrued the evidence in the record before him; acted irrationally both in light of that evidence and his own stated decisional criteria; and failed to justify significant departures from past policies and practices — a veritable smorgasbord of classic, clear-cut APA violations.”

The Census Bureau had repeatedly advised Ross against adding the question, which immigrant and voting rights advocates warned would likely lead to an undercount of immigrant populations in the Census.

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

Wielding control of the House and a new set of investigative powers, Democrats are preparing to bring Education Secretary Betsy DeVos under the sharpest scrutiny she has seen since taking office.

DeVos has emerged as a common target for Democrats as they take charge of the House and its committees, which carry the authority to issue subpoenas and call hearings. At least four panels are expected to challenge DeVos on her most polarizing policies, among them her overhaul of campus sexual assault rules and her rollback of for-profit college regulations.

“We are going to hold Secretary DeVos accountable for, in so many ways, failing to uphold federal protections for our students,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat leading an appropriations subcommittee that oversees the education budget. “It has to do with hurting student borrowers, protecting predatory for-profit schools and, above all, moving toward privatizing public education.”

House Democrats are increasing scrutiny of several top federal officials, but few have drawn as much attention as DeVos. Along with the appropriations committee, DeVos is likely to see pushback from panels that oversee education, veterans’ affairs and government oversight.

Without control of the Senate, Democrats will have a tough time forcing DeVos’ hand through legislation, but they can press her through subpoenas, hearings and the budgeting process. In contrast, DeVos was called before the House’s education committee just once over the last two years of Republican control.

Much of the new scrutiny will come from Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, the top Democrat on the education committee, who said he will call DeVos to testify “as often as necessary.”

“We have not been getting answers to most of our questions,” Scott said in an interview, recalling when Democrats were in a minority. “It’s kind of hard to do oversight when they’re not answering our questions.”

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

Two House Republicans on the formerly ill-named and Trump-sucking House Oversight Committee fear that Cohen's testimony will be a "media stunt." That's kinda' rich since it's coming from the Congressional caucus packed to the gills with experts on pulling "investigation" media stunts.

Quote

Two Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are urging Michael Cohen’s attorney to prove that his client’s upcoming February 7 public testimony before the committee won’t just be a “media stunt.”

In a Tuesday letter, House Freedom Caucus Members Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Mark Meadows (R-NC) asked Guy Petrillo for firm answers on the scope of Cohen’s testimony, claiming that Cohen’s public relations representative in the probe, Lanny Davis, cautioned that much of what Cohen can say will be restricted by his cooperation with multiple ongoing investigations.

Jordan and Meadows, both close allies of President Trump, cast the hearing as a made-for-TV effort by “Clinton consigliere” Davis and Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) to get Cohen to share unflattering anecdotes about Trump in a public setting.

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

House Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) announced Wednesday that he is launching an investigation into the White House’s handling of security clearances for past and present employees including Jared Kushner and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

A crop of popular liberal freshmen—Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)—and returner Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) have been appointed to the House Oversight Committee, vested with the power to investigate President Donald Trump.

Committee chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) approved the new members, according to a Tuesday Politico report.

“I am excited — there were a lot of people that wanted to come on our committee,” he told Politico.

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

“I’m concerned about — we want to make sure that policies are being made based on what’s good for the United States and not what might be good for the president personally,” Engel told the network.

The probe will include whether Trump is violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause, a portion of the law that prohibits the president from accepting things of value from foreign governments.

“There are a lot of people who look at the Constitution and say that it’s being violated right now,” Engel said. Upon being asked whether he thought Trump was violating the Constitution, Engel replied: “I think we’ll find out soon. I think it’s a possibility, yeah.”

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Rev Martin Luther King Jr.

Obamacare took my guns away and put me in a FEMA reeducation camp.

Anonymous

If you've got public schools paid for by taxpayers, you're in a socialist nation. If you have public roads paid for by taxpayers, socialist nation. If you've got public defense (police, fire, military, coast guard) paid for by tax dollars, socialist nation. If you're in a nation that has nationalized or localized delivery of services that are not paid for by users alone, you're in a socialist nation- the only question is how socialist. As I see it, we have the military pay to protecting the shipping lanes for our fuel needs which makes up very socialist. In a capitalist nation, the people supplying the oil would pay for their own defense force.

** Some of you more savvy Computer types can fill me in. I understand unless they use special disc erasing programs, most of a "wiped clean" hard drive can be resurrected.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Rev Martin Luther King Jr.

Obamacare took my guns away and put me in a FEMA reeducation camp.

Anonymous

If you've got public schools paid for by taxpayers, you're in a socialist nation. If you have public roads paid for by taxpayers, socialist nation. If you've got public defense (police, fire, military, coast guard) paid for by tax dollars, socialist nation. If you're in a nation that has nationalized or localized delivery of services that are not paid for by users alone, you're in a socialist nation- the only question is how socialist. As I see it, we have the military pay to protecting the shipping lanes for our fuel needs which makes up very socialist. In a capitalist nation, the people supplying the oil would pay for their own defense force.

"Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers arc in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”

— Carl Sagan
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
1995

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

— H.L. Mencken
On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have been raring to go since January 16, antsy to start launching probes into President Donald Trump’s contacts with Russia.

However, their eagerness is being stymied by sluggish Republicans who have still not named members except one—Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) as ranking member—to the committee, according to a Saturday Daily Beast report.

No committee business can commence until the members are all selected. Democrats are reportedly hopeful that Republicans will announce their roster next week.

Or next month. Or next...

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

Stone is on Sunday with Stephanopolis blabbing about his innocence. I’ll have to look at a replay to count how many times he claims innocence.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Rev Martin Luther King Jr.

Obamacare took my guns away and put me in a FEMA reeducation camp.

Anonymous

If you've got public schools paid for by taxpayers, you're in a socialist nation. If you have public roads paid for by taxpayers, socialist nation. If you've got public defense (police, fire, military, coast guard) paid for by tax dollars, socialist nation. If you're in a nation that has nationalized or localized delivery of services that are not paid for by users alone, you're in a socialist nation- the only question is how socialist. As I see it, we have the military pay to protecting the shipping lanes for our fuel needs which makes up very socialist. In a capitalist nation, the people supplying the oil would pay for their own defense force.